Sorkin's Newsroom Compares 'Lying' Republicans to Sex Offenders

HBO's The Newsroom continued its anti-GOP streak Sunday evening with its fourth episode, "I'll Try to Fix You." While previous installments of Aaron Sorkin's latest series have been markedly anti-GOP, last night's offering was probably the most delirious. Self-righteous cable news anchor Will MacAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, set his sights on gun owners, going so far as to compare politicians who are in favor of the Second Amendment to sex offenders.

The fact that the right to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution -- that document which every federal officeholder is sworn to defend -- is to his mind, irrelevant. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Daniels's preachy McAvoy character is even intolerant to the point of paternalistic misogyny of fellow liberals who are pro-gun rights.

When MacAvoy brings a woman back to his apartment and she asks him to look through her purse to find a joint, he is distraught to find a handgun instead of marijuana. Naturally, he leaps at the chance to pass judgment on her and proceeds to grab the gun out of her hand, remove the magazine and give her a lengthy lecture about the dangers of owning a gun - even AFTER she explains that she owns the weapon to protect herself from being sexually assaulted.

MacAvoy's female companion does not take kindly to such treatment and tells her side of the story to a tabloid, enraging the newscaster, who proceeds to justify his behavior on the grounds that he is a "registered Republican."

This "registered Republican" comment should sound familiar to any frequent viewer, since Sorkin has slipped it into the script at every possible moment.

The fact that MacAvoy seems to have no association with any conservative group or hold any conservative beliefs is, apparently, irrelevant. Championing liberal causes, defending President Obama's policies in every episode and making a case against gun ownership would seemingly indicate that MacAvoy is a Republican in the Lincoln Chafee mold, which is to say a Republican-in-name-only (RINO).

But perhaps that's Sorkin's wish: a Republican Party populated by sanctimonious liberals like MacAvoy, a light beer version of the hopped-up liberalism of the Democratic Party.

NewsBusters has been chronicling each week's Newsroom outrage. For more on episode three, go here.

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